PA Will Lose a U.S. House Seat

Pennsylvania's modest 3.4 percent population growth since 2000 means the commonwealth will lose one of its 19 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2013, the U.S. Census Bureau announced Tuesday.

The national population grew from 281 million to 309 million. Pennsylvania went from 12.3 million to 12.7 million residents.

Every state but Michigan added residents in the past decade, but eight grew enough to gain extra seats in the House, led by Texas, whose 20.6 percent growth was enough to bump its apportionment from 32 to 36.

Pennsylvania was one of 10 states to lose House seats. So was New Jersey, which will drop to 12 House members. New York and Ohio each lost two seats.

The state government must decide how to redraw 19 House districts into 18. U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach, a Republican entering his fifth two-year term, is the congressman for all residents of Bala Cynwyd, Narberth, Penn Valley and Belmont Hills. Republicans will control both the state legislature and the governor's office beginning in 2011.

The new House seats largely will come from the West and the South, while some less lucky states in the Midwest and Northeast must determine how to deploy their remaining representatives. The exception is Louisiana, which will lose one seat.

The change means that some House members who won election last month will not have the luxury of incumbent campaigns in the 2012 election, their districts having disappeared.

The 9.7 percent national population growth since 2000 was the smallest by percentage since the 1930s. In the 1990s, the population grew 13.2 percent.